Inspired by Spotify Wrapped and a Year in Monzo, retailer Haypp has revealed what a year of spending on vapes looked like for Brits in 2024. From the most popular flavours to the most purchased brands, this year’s data provides an interesting insight into the current vape market.
The sales data from Haypp reveals the importance of flavours in encouraging smokers to switch from cigarettes to less harmful alternatives.The data shows that fruit flavours, in particular, were far more popular than flavours such as tobacco or menthol.
With over 7,000 different vape flavours available in the UK, Pineapple Ice by Lost Mary came out as the favourite of the year, with six per cent of sales coming from this product. Watermelon by Elf Bar is the second most popular vape flavour, with 3.7 per cent of customers opting for the fruit-flavoured vape. Elf Bar’s Mad Blue completes the top three, with 3.1 per cent of vapers choosing the fruit flavour.
Top 10 most loved vape products in 2024 were:
- Lost Mary 20mg 600 Pineapple Ice
- Elf Bar 20mg 600 Watermelon
- Elf Bar 20mg 600 Mad Blue
- Lost Mary 20mg 600 Strawberry Ice
- Elf Bar 20mg 600 Snoow Tobacco
- Lost Mary 20mg 600 Menthol
- Elf Bar 20mg 600 Blueberry Raspberry
- Lost Mary 20mg 600 Blueberry Sour Raspberry
- Elf Bar 20mg 600 Cherry Cola
- Elf Bar 20mg 600 Strawberry Raspberry Cherry Ice
Making alternative nicotine products more attractive to adult nicotine users through flavours is vital to reducing smoking rates and smoking related deaths in the UK. However, the availability of a wide variety of flavours must be balanced with preventing youth access to vapes. With this in mind, Haypp does not stock flavours which could potentially appeal to underage vape users, for example candy or energy drink flavours.
When it came to brands, the UK certainly favoured the household names, with Elf Bar and Lost Mary dominating market share (38.7 per cent and 29.5 per cent respectively). The next favourite, Vuse, made the top three with a 13 per cent market share.
“The data revealed a clear favourite when it comes to vape brands, but with so many flavours available to vape users, it was no surprise to see more of a split result here," said Haypp's Markus Lindblad. "It’s also interesting to see that, generally, Brits steer away from tobacco flavoured vapes and instead find exotic fruit flavours like pineapple and watermelon the most appealing. With just two per cent opting for the menthol flavour, it’s clear that alternative flavours are important for many who have taken the decision to switch from cigarettes to vapes.
Research from our insights department shows that quitters usually start off with a tobacco flavoured vape, but after a while, they move on to other flavours, especially fruity ones. Smokers, as they move away from cigarettes, also want to move away from the taste of tobacco. This is why flavours are such an important part of the decision to switch and stay off cigarettes for many people and also why it is so crucial to take a sensible, balanced approach to flavours in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. Banning flavours may have an unintended consequence of reducing the number of people using vapes to quit cigarettes and make some people switch back to smoking.”
